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I realised a few weeks ago that its 50 years this year since RADIOSAILING began in earnest within the MYA. Yes I know that there were radio A class racing at Poole Gosport and YM5mOA (Hampton Court RYC to you new commers!) , but by early 1970's people were starting to put radio equipment into Marbleheads and there was an explosion of radio marblehead racing around the country. Recognising this development, the MYA and the Guildford MYC organised, in 1974, the the first Radio Marblehead National Championship. This is an anniversary worth celebrating, and I urge all radio Marblehead sailors young & old with aincient and modern boats to join us at this years event at Datchet RSC over the weekend of the 1st & 2nd of June. There were 4 people present at the first Champs who are still racing today. John Cleave, Roger Stollery, Peter Stollery, and myself. Peter Stollery I hear you cry, surely he's much too young!! Well yes he is, but nevertheless, he was there, in his pram with his mum!! So why not come & see us, we can regail you with stories about how my Marblehead (a Bewitched) design weighed double (26lbs) the weight of the winning (Teacher's Pet) design at 13lbs. probably why David Waugh won, & I was a lowly 12th!!

My reply above covers what the RRS says, but what is more important is the tactical situation and how the rules may be used to gain an advantage. While you may luff a boat to windward, what is the point? They are trying to block your wind, and you have the right to defend it, but while you are both luffing, the rest of the fleet is gaining on both of you. On a run, what is more important is to protect the inside line for the next mark – so if they are trying to pass to weather but will make them outside at the mark, let them go. If they are trying to be inside boat at the mark, then you should start to head up well before the overlap even begins to make it clear you will not let them and to encourage them to go below, so that you will be the one with mark room. John

Most of Vic Smeed's yacht design sail very well. I started with my Dad back in about 1973, sailing a Starlet fitted with a Macgregor single channel set up. I still have it , along with one of Vic's Panache yachts and two Harem hulls undergoing a bit of TLC . Stored away in the garage is a set of fibre glass mouldings for a Star C, the boat he designed as the basis of a new sailing class. Remember, when he proposed it there was very little around except the huge A boats and the radios we have today were still a dream away. He designed it on behalf of Model Boats mag who commissioned 50 sets of mouldings from a company to get the class started and the fittings doyens of the day, Roberts and Jones both had fitting sets available. I had one back in the 70's and it sailed beautifully on an early Horizon 2 channel propo unit. Sadly, the class did not take off. The current mouldings pitched up on Ebay a while ago

As the seller of this boat, I must take exception to this post. I bought this boat from a well known builder who had sailed it with no problems. I have sailed it at club level and had absolutely no problems with water ingress. The buyer came and looked at the boat and was happy. If had wanted to see it sailing, that could easily have been arranged. On collection, it was placed in the boot of a car barely big enough to contain it, with the lead and keel left on. The buyer then informed me that he was due to take it on the next day back to Scarborough in a much smaller car still. I don't believe that travelling in this manner did the boat any favours. Mark contacted to me for advise and like the above posts I suggested using either Captain Tolley's or thinned resin swilled around the hull to seal any crack. I do not know if he has actually tried any of the suggestions. As to John Taylor's unpleasant remark above " They may compromise if shown the errors of there ways?" The boat was sold in good faith and fully sailable condition . In fact the day before collection, I had assembled it to check it over and as I was not happy with the winch, replaced it with a brand new unit Hardly the actions of someone trying to shift a "lemon". Perhaps instead of buying my Lintel, Mark should have spent 3 times as much and bought the one currently advertised in the For Sale ads.

As a competitor and a member of the MYA Council I would like to give a big thank you to all of the race team and members of Poole RYC for hosting the 2024 MYA IOM Nationals. It is a big commitment with a lot of effort before and during the 3 day event for any club to undertake, mostly from club members who never participate in these events. Without our clubs and volunteers we would not be able to enjoy the sport as we do. As someone who got their early to secure my parking spot I saw the tireless work done by the backstage gang preparing things first thing in the morning, and the break down at the end of the day from the same unsung heroes. Thank you to everyone who made the event a fantastic weekend. Well done to the winners, commiserations to those who didn't and thanks to all for the great spirit in which the racing took place. Results will no doubt be on the MYA website shortly but until a more formal report, please accept this as a massive thanks from this competitor and on behalf of the MYA. See you all in 2025 at Lincoln - more details shortly. Darin

I never got my Centenary shirt despite being a competitor. I was told it would be sent on. I look out the front window every day waiting for the postman..............

'Pressing the button' is for when you are using and RMG switch i.e. you turn the RMG switch on/off. If you are not using one then read the instructions for the TX on/off method. Personally I wouldn't bother setting the travels on the winch, I would just use the Tx travel function (unless someone has already set the travels too short for your boat). It's far easier and quicker to set the winch travels to max and use the Tx functions to set the sheeted in / out positions. If you want to set up high / low mode sheeting positions then the winch travel has to be greater than the 'normal' position anyway. It looks as though the D models pre-date Lipo / LiFe so setting the battery type isn't much use either.

I worked for Oliver Lee at Burnham on Crouch, and can confirm that this is one of many kits I manufactured.

Hi Guys, I am new here, so please excuse me if this is not in the right part of the forum. My Dad and I were founder members of the Basildon & District Model Yacht Club, in the early 70s. Dad went on to become a successful Marblehead skipper, and I believe he became National Champion at least once. I thought I had already posted here a year or more ago, when I found an old yacht in my parents loft, which I had built (with a lot of help from my Dad) as a young teenager (52 years ago), but as I can find no mention of my (imagined?) post here, that was possibly another forum. The 36R model is from a Vic Smeed design called the Gosling. It was of very light construction, and when it was complete, the structure was so airtight, the deck could be seen bulging if the boat was left in sun. I decided that was probably not good for its longevity and elected to drill a 1/16" diameter breather hole through the deck a few inches aft of the mast. After a few sessions sailing it, I decided girls were quite good fun, and it stayed in the loft until I had to deal with my parents estate. Despite the huge swings in humidity and temperature in the roof space of their semi-detached chalet, the model survived its time in storage totally unscathed. I like to think that was helped by giving it a vent. Anyhow, when we get time, my wife (whom I discovered a couple of years after building the Gosling) and I go to Maldon boating lake and sail the model. It fits in the car fully rigged. Please feel free to add your photos and stories below (or tell me where to repost this).

After an 8 month hiatus where I was banned from my workshop in order to prepare for a possible house move, (which has now been abandoned), I have started work again on my modified Petrel 6M. The next question for the 6M experts out there is what incidence should I aim for on the ballast weight and what on the ballast do I take as a horizontal reference axis? Its a Sails etc wide delta planform unit and looks about right just resting on its lower surface. However it need quite a bit of smoothing and finishing yet.

It does have nice lines Jef. I suppose the best wind for the Dovercourt pond is somewhere between south and south west (our prevailing wind direction ) for end to end sailing. The top pond of these is the yachting pond, the other has pedalos on it these days, used to be rowing boats. Parking can be right beside the pond - if there's space. Public loos a short walk up Lower Marine Parade, cafes up there too. Take walking boots or something - there's a lot of swan poop around the pond.

Lovely curves Jim - sorry, Tony! You always have had a sunny disposition. Maybe I should take a trip to 'your' lake Tony. Is there a wind direction that it doesn't work well in, for freesailing?

Very nice Jef. Here's a yacht my dad made, probably in the early 60's. I can remember us taking it down to the yacht pond at Dovercourt in the mid to late 60's. The reason I think it was built in the early 60's is that it's named after me, my pet name was 'Jim' - no one calls me Jim any more. A girl friend did a double take when my mother called me Jim and I responded. Sunny Jim was my baby name, I had a sunny disposition then, the Force breakfast cereal character was Sunny Jim, I can remember that being a breakfast favourite at times. Dimensions are: 36" LOA (ex. bow sprit), 7" beam, 8" deck to bottom of keel. Looking a bit sorry for itself, hasn't sailed since late 60's or early 70's.

Hi I have been thinking of joining the sport for a few years having sailed an old Ikon about 18 years ago for a short time. I soon realised that obtaining a a high end IOM is impossible which out a very long wait. I’m sure this puts many people off. I know the performance is down to the skipper but even Lewis Hamilton could drive a Fiat 500 as fast as I could a Ferrari. Surely if there is a demand the licences builders could produce more. In the mean time after a visit to the very Friendly LRSC I now have a DF95 and 65 with my first race this weekend if I can get the super glue off my fingers

Attached is some footage from my early experiments with this technology. Just to be clear this is a recording of real-time video being transmitted from the boat to a screen on my transmitter i.e. I am (at least partially) sailing the boat by looking at the screen. It's still early days bit a few things are obvious: Good points: Makes rounding marks much easier Viewing the tell-tales is valuable You can see what you are doing in a crowd of boats Bad Points: Camera field of view is limited so you need to switch between looking at the boat and the screen e.g. you can't see sideways to judge the starting line or see boats behind you. The technology obviously comes from the current popularity of drones & drone racing and hence the cost is very reasonable. The set-up I'm using costs less than an RMG, I did wonder about 3D glasses but ruled it out (for the moment at least) because of a) the FOV problem and b) I don't want to look like a geek. Yes I know this is illegal for racing (at the moment!) but I believe we need to examine this technology to see what benefits it could bring to our sport. If it could be used to attract more people (maybe even younger people) into the sport then we would be foolish to ignore it. P.S. If you record the footage it would make interesting viewing at a protest meeting!

Amazing… and the first view of a future. we ought to get Mr G Lineker and other pundits, to have their views about this, after all they have said about the 4th football referee. Could be useful for coaching beginners… also for some great video clips to attract new people to our sport. Disregard nothing at this stage, is my view.